Rigdon Park Disc Golf Course sits on Columbus’s south side and runs through one of the more underused green spaces in the city. The 18-hole layout is free to play, open year-round, and long enough to humble experienced players while remaining approachable enough for beginners who’ve just grabbed their first driver.
The course occupies a mixed terrain of open fairways and wooded corridors, with elevation changes that don’t announce themselves until a player is already committed to a throw. Several holes require navigating a tunnel of pines before finding a basket tucked near a creek bed or behind a ridge. The turf varies by season — lush and forgiving in spring, hard-packed and fast in midsummer, covered in pine duff by late fall — which changes how the course plays even if the layout stays the same.
No rental equipment is available on-site, so first-timers need to bring their own discs or borrow from someone willing. A basic starter set from a sporting goods store or an online retailer runs $25 to $40, enough to cover a driver, a mid-range, and a putter. That’s the full investment beyond gas money to get there. The course itself charges nothing, which is one reason it draws a steady mix of retirees walking the course for exercise, league players grinding through practice rounds on weekday mornings, and teenagers who’ve discovered that throwing plastic through trees is a legitimate pastime.
Weekend mornings are the busiest window, roughly 9 to 11 a.m. Players who want a clear course without waiting on groups ahead benefit from arriving earlier or switching to a weekday afternoon. The course stays playable until dark, and the tree canopy keeps things cooler than exposed fairways at other Columbus parks, which matters significantly from May through September.
Rigdon Park itself offers restrooms, a parking lot, and a playground area adjacent to the disc golf entrance, making it a workable destination for families where one adult wants to throw a round while others use the surrounding green space. Dogs are common on the course; most players keep them leashed, though that’s informal courtesy rather than enforced rule.
The disc golf community in Columbus is active enough that organized leagues run out of Rigdon Park several times a year, with casual leagues accessible to newer players and competitive formats for those with ratings on the Professional Disc Golf Association system. Information on current league schedules circulates through local social media groups and the PDGA’s online event finder.
No food or beverage vendors operate at the park, so players planning a longer visit — two rounds runs about two to three hours at an easy pace — should bring water, especially in warm months. The nearest convenience stores are a short drive north along Veterans Parkway.
Rigdon Park isn’t a destination that photographs well or draws visitors from out of town. What it does is provide a genuinely playable disc golf course at no cost, on public land, with enough design interest to bring people back more than once. For Columbus players who’ve outgrown the idea of paying range fees or greens fees to practice a sport, that calculus works out in its favor every time.
